Wing slats are mounted to the leading portion of an aircraft wing and are moveable relative to the wing to manoeuvre the aircraft during flight.
A wing slat is generally heated to reduce the build up of ice which could interfere with the operation of the wing slat to the detriment of the safety of the aircraft. Currently most civil aircraft wing slat designs use hot gas for ice protection purposes. Such technology employs bleeding air from the engines, and ducting the bled air to the wing slat via tubes. The hot air is finally distributed to the slat nose skin via small holes in the tubes. The system is mainly suitable where the aircraft structure is fabricated of sheet metal, and can more easily withstand the temperature of the hot gasses from the engine. The slat is generally fabricated as a one-piece riveted structure in such a way as to create a pressure box for the hot gas bounded by the nose skin to the front, and a nose beam to the rear. The system is not efficient, as it cannot discriminate what part of the wing slat structure to heat up, and resultantly ice protect.
The ice protection system for the aircraft wing slat requires periodic maintenance, usually requiring removal of the wing slat. Removal of the wing slats renders the aircraft out of service during this maintenance which incurs a considerable inconvenience and loss of revenue to the aircraft operator. Furthermore, damage to the leading edge wing slats by impacts, particularly from vehicles servicing the aircraft at an airport, are a common occurrence. Damaged wing slats require time consuming removal, sourcing of a replacement wing slat and fitting and re-alignment of the replacement wing slat to the wing. This procedure is time consuming, again causing considerable inconvenience and loss of revenue to the aircraft operator.
It is an aim of an embodiment of the present invention to alleviate at least one of the problems discussed above.